A Michigan photographer has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for bilking a single family out of $4.6 million through a bogus child modeling scheme.
Chanise Coyne, 46, of New Boston, received the sentence Tuesday in the Eastern District of Michigan, United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. Announced. She had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May after admitting she took the money by promising it would cover advance fees for a young girl’s participation in modeling events nationwide.
Coyne fabricated an elaborate paper trail to sustain the con, creating fake text messages, emails and invoices to convince the family their daughter’s career was advancing. Prosecutors said none of the funds ever went toward the child’s modeling endeavors.
Instead, Coyne diverted “significant sums” to gambling and spent more than $200,000 on Taylor Swift tickets in Florida, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
“Coyne used a child’s aspirations as a smokescreen for a multimillion-dollar fraud against a family. And when you prey on families, you will pay for it,” Gorgon said in a news release.
The financial devastation was compounded by betrayal of trust, investigators emphasized. Jennifer Runyan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, framed the crime as methodical rather than impulsive.
“This was not a mistake or a momentary lapse in judgment. This was a calculated, multi-million-dollar fraud scheme that preyed on a family’s trust and a child’s aspirations for personal financial gain,” Runyan said.
“Those who build their lifestyle on lies, deception, and stolen money should expect serious consequences. FBI Detroit will continue aggressively pursuing fraudsters who target Michigan families and holding them accountable for every dollar they steal,” she added.
Beyond prison time, Coyne was ordered to pay $4.6 million in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release. The sentence caps a pattern of deceptive conduct that had drawn complaints from multiple customers well before federal charges were filed.
Coyne’s photography business attracted mixed reviews online, with several clients alleging she regularly canceled shoots and refused refunds. The complaints surfaced in Facebook comments under a post about a separate 2024 incident involving a Kris Kringle photoshoot.
“I purchased photo packages costing hundreds of dollars and she rescheduled/canceled shoots (which stuff happens, I get), but wouldn’t refund money and only gave ‘credits’ and then the way she did bookings, I was never available to use any ‘credits’ for any shoots,” one Facebook user wrote.
“Literally she’d be like ‘this shoot can’t be booked with credits.’ None of them could. So the credits were useless. She refused refunds and it’s not just me who experienced this,” the user continued, sharing screenshots of alleged conversations showing Coyne repeatedly canceling prepaid sessions.
Another commenter connected Coyne’s public displays of luxury to the fraud prosecutors would later detail.
“Omg she has posted on her FB page in 2023 staying in a mansion, on a party bus and at the Taylor swift concert with about 20 ppl in Miami! What a f–king idiot!! Loser fraud!!!!!” the user wrote.
That 2024 Santa Claus debacle had already drawn local news attention. Coyne took money from a family for the holiday shoot, canceled it and claimed the Santa performer had Monkeypox, according to FOX 2. The station located the Santa, who showed text messages from Coyne stating she was canceling because she herself was sick with the illness. Only after the station’s involvement did Coyne return the family’s money, without clarifying the contradictory explanations.
A private Facebook group named “Chanise Coyne Scam Victims,” created in November 2024, now has over 300 members and features a screenshot of the Monkeypox text exchange.
Coyne is set to begin serving her federal prison sentence.